High school

High school is the name used in some parts of the world (in particular the United Kingdom, Northern America and also Oceania) to describe an institution which provides all or part of secondary education. The term "high school" originated in Scotland, Great Britain with the world's oldest being the Royal High School (Edinburgh) in 1505, and spread to the New World countries as the high prestige that the Scottish educational system had at the time led several countries to employ Scottish educators to develop their state education systems.

The Royal High School was used as a model for the first public high school in the United States, the English High School founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1821. The precise stage of schooling provided by a high school differs from country to country, and may vary within the same jurisdiction. In all of New Zealand and Malaysia along with parts of Australia and Canada, high school is synonymous with secondary school, and encompasses the entire secondary stage of education.